Muncipal Hot spots heating up for the big players
Jim Bemis
FYI
Jim
EarthLink Scores First Municipal Win
By Glenn Fleishman
Philadelphia picks EarthLink to build its wireless network: The 11-year-old firm will use Tropos equipment to build a citywide mesh of Wi-Fi. The word on the street from several sources is that EarthLink will make aggressive bids for many of the major RFPs out there; they’re one of the bidders for San Francisco’s network. At Esme Vos’s Muniwireless conference last week, EarthLink announced the formation of a municipal networking division.
This is a unique moment in the history of EarthLink. To my knowledge, the company has owned effectively no substantial infrastructure in its history. It was founded on buying modem time from shared pools. It has resold DSL and Wi-Fi service maintained and operated by others. This move into municipal infrastructure certainly gives them a chance to derive revenue other than from the shrinking dial-up user base and the ludicrously over- and underregulated DSL market.
The next step in Philadelphia’s process, ostensibly, is raising the money. Wireless Philadelphia, a non-profit, is supposed to raise funds through grants and loans to pay EarthLink to build the network out. More recent reporting suggested bonds might be involved, even though those seemed specifically ruled out in earlier reports of early-stage financing. The project’s plan calls for operating revenue to provide any cash flow to fund additional budgeted infrastructure without returning to outside sources for money. A substantial amount of this operating revenue should come from Philadelphia, which has pledged its telecommunications business to Wireless Philadelphia.
Posted by Glennf at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2005
Can Google Pay for SF Through Clicks?
By Glenn Fleishman
The speculation has been that Google thinks it will make back what it spends on an SF Wi-Fi network in more advertising sales: The first supposition is that by adding a Wi-Fi network citywide that Google will increase overall Internet usage. Because it already owns the minds of a large percentage of Internet users in general, branding their putative San Francisco-wide portal won’t shift lots of users from other search engines or outlets. They have to rely on adding clicks if they’re trying to justify it in part through additional income from advertising clickthroughs.
Google doesn’t have a per-se average clickthrough price. You can pay a nickel a click for unique and unpopular keywords, but those aren’t delivered very often for that reason. Keywords relating to asbestos litigation can cost $60 or more a click.
I’m going to estimate that for Google to build the low-broadband-speed ubiquitous network they propose for San Francisco that they’ll have spend $5 million to $8 million. Philadelphia’s network will be more expense because they have twice the population (over 1.5 million versus SF’s 750K) and nearly three times the area (135 square miles versus 46 square miles)—and because Philly wants a higher level of minimum bandwidth. They’d like 1 Mbps in each direction; Google’s plan promises 300 Kbps.
If Google can add a few million incremental clicks a year, it’s possible that the network will be entirely paid out of ads. But that’s not what they’re aiming for—they don’t really need incremental users to drive delivering more ads and clicks. They’re aiming to move more advertising dollars out of the devastated newspaper business in the city and suck more life from telephone book display advertising. National advertising in the U.S. comprised $45 billion the first half of 2005; local advertising, $26 billion.
Because Google will run the network, they can deliver ads targeted to the city block for folks using their Wi-Fi network without knowing anything about the individual consumer, as it will be entirely based on the Wi-Fi network not consumer characteristics. I imagine Google views this as a massive experiment and money well spent.
Posted by Glennf at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)
September 30, 2005
Google Bids To Build Free San Francisco Wi-Fi Network
By Glenn Fleishman
Om Malik has the scoop on Google’s plan as does The San Francisco Chronicle: Google has thrown its hat into the proposed San Francisco city-wide network upping the ante against competing bidders by suggesting access will be free, as will the cost to the city. Om is interested in Google Talk working across an entire city. He also the value of location-targeted advertising. The Wall Street Journal now has the story, too.
Om reports (and the Chronicle does not but the Journal does) that the service will be a mere 300 Kbps ubiquitously. This would suggest perhaps that they’re deploying RoamAD’s technology via their partner, which Om pegs as the firm WFI. I say RoamAD because it’s the only company I know that uses 300 Kbps as their bandwidth hook for ubiquitous service at a minimum.
The New York Times report adds that Google will deploy 802.11g at first, and switch to 802.11n (not expected to be in final form until as late as early 2007).
The SF Chronicle story quotes a fellow at the Pacific Research Institute—which has ties to SBC, Verizon, and The Heartland Institute—that even free is too expensive. Vince Vasquez says, “But even if it’s free, it might represent too much involvement by the city in a sector that should left to private industries.” That’s a paraphrase by the reporters. This probably involves the facilities issue: the city will be involved in setting the network’s parameters and offering access to conduit, poles, etc., in a fashion that might not available to any company other than their preferred bidder.
Microsoft’s motto was a computer in every home, and, said sotto voce, running Microsoft software. Google’s is perhaps a network everywhere, and, quietly, clicking on Google ads.
Posted by Glennf at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
Tarken
It would not suprise me if Google did use RoamAD's downloadable Wi-Fi
node software - they could essentially put the Google version of the
RoamAD Wi-Fi network node operating system on the Google homepage for
people to download onto cheap boxes and within days Google would have
the largest Wi-Fi network in the world. That is a lot of click throughs
for Google ads.
Since the RoamAD nodes download their software on boot up, everytime
the nodes rebooted they would get the new software - this way Google
would always have the latest middlewear running on the network.
Tarken
Jim Bemis wrote:
> FYI
>
>
> Jim
> EarthLink Scores First Municipal Win
> By Glenn Fleishman
>
> Philadelphia picks EarthLink to build its wireless network: The 11-year-old firm will use Tropos equipment to build a citywide mesh of Wi-Fi. The word on the street from several sources is that EarthLink will make aggressive bids for many of the major RFPs out there; they're one of the bidders for San Francisco's network. At Esme Vos's Muniwireless conference last week, EarthLink announced the formation of a municipal networking division.
>
> This is a unique moment in the history of EarthLink. To my knowledge, the company has owned effectively no substantial infrastructure in its history. It was founded on buying modem time from shared pools. It has resold DSL and Wi-Fi service maintained and operated by others. This move into municipal infrastructure certainly gives them a chance to derive revenue other than from the shrinking dial-up user base and the ludicrously over- and underregulated DSL market.
>
> The next step in Philadelphia's process, ostensibly, is raising the money. Wireless Philadelphia, a non-profit, is supposed to raise funds through grants and loans to pay EarthLink to build the network out. More recent reporting suggested bonds might be involved, even though those seemed specifically ruled out in earlier reports of early-stage financing. The project's plan calls for operating revenue to provide any cash flow to fund additional budgeted infrastructure without returning to outside sources for money. A substantial amount of this operating revenue should come from Philadelphia, which has pledged its telecommunications business to Wireless Philadelphia.
>
> Posted by Glennf at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
> October 01, 2005Can Google Pay for SF Through Clicks?
> By Glenn Fleishman
>
> The speculation has been that Google thinks it will make back what it spends on an SF Wi-Fi network in more advertising sales: The first supposition is that by adding a Wi-Fi network citywide that Google will increase overall Internet usage. Because it already owns the minds of a large percentage of Internet users in general, branding their putative San Francisco-wide portal won't shift lots of users from other search engines or outlets. They have to rely on adding clicks if they're trying to justify it in part through additional income from advertising clickthroughs.
>
> Google doesn't have a per-se average clickthrough price. You can pay a nickel a click for unique and unpopular keywords, but those aren't delivered very often for that reason. Keywords relating to asbestos litigation can cost $60 or more a click.
>
> I'm going to estimate that for Google to build the low-broadband-speed ubiquitous network they propose for San Francisco that they'll have spend $5 million to $8 million. Philadelphia's network will be more expense because they have twice the population (over 1.5 million versus SF's 750K) and nearly three times the area (135 square miles versus 46 square miles)-and because Philly wants a higher level of minimum bandwidth. They'd like 1 Mbps in each direction; Google's plan promises 300 Kbps.
>
> If Google can add a few million incremental clicks a year, it's possible that the network will be entirely paid out of ads. But that's not what they're aiming for-they don't really need incremental users to drive delivering more ads and clicks. They're aiming to move more advertising dollars out of the devastated newspaper business in the city and suck more life from telephone book display advertising. National advertising in the U.S. comprised $45 billion the first half of 2005; local advertising, $26 billion.
>
> Because Google will run the network, they can deliver ads targeted to the city block for folks using their Wi-Fi network without knowing anything about the individual consumer, as it will be entirely based on the Wi-Fi network not consumer characteristics. I imagine Google views this as a massive experiment and money well spent.
>
> Posted by Glennf at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)
> September 30, 2005Google Bids To Build Free San Francisco Wi-Fi Network
> By Glenn Fleishman
>
> Om Malik has the scoop on Google's plan as does The San Francisco Chronicle: Google has thrown its hat into the proposed San Francisco city-wide network upping the ante against competing bidders by suggesting access will be free, as will the cost to the city. Om is interested in Google Talk working across an entire city. He also the value of location-targeted advertising. The Wall Street Journal now has the story, too.
>
> Om reports (and the Chronicle does not but the Journal does) that the service will be a mere 300 Kbps ubiquitously. This would suggest perhaps that they're deploying RoamAD's technology via their partner, which Om pegs as the firm WFI. I say RoamAD because it's the only company I know that uses 300 Kbps as their bandwidth hook for ubiquitous service at a minimum.
>
> The New York Times report adds that Google will deploy 802.11g at first, and switch to 802.11n (not expected to be in final form until as late as early 2007).
>
> The SF Chronicle story quotes a fellow at the Pacific Research Institute-which has ties to SBC, Verizon, and The Heartland Institute-that even free is too expensive. Vince Vasquez says, "But even if it's free, it might represent too much involvement by the city in a sector that should left to private industries." That's a paraphrase by the reporters. This probably involves the facilities issue: the city will be involved in setting the network's parameters and offering access to conduit, poles, etc., in a fashion that might not available to any company other than their preferred bidder.